one more for the road | Oskarwestbridge

one more for the road (hit and run)

One More for the Road was my senior thesis, directed in collaboration with Lincoln Harrison. The piece was inspired by conversations between Lincoln and I about the road trips he used to take with his family. We were both fascinated by the simple games that his family played in order to pass the time. The act of trying to entertain each other struck us a subtle form of care.

Our initial plan for the project was a devised piece somewhat akin to the work of Chicago's Neo Futurists: a series of scripted vignettes created by performers and embedded within the format of a road trip. We planned to use games like 20 questions or rock-papers-scissors as the foundation of these scenes.

However, a few days into our rehearsal process, the entire creative team was struck with COVID-19, which ultimately forced us to pivot. With less time to create and rehearse scripted scenes, our ensemble decided to pivot towards the creation of games that we could play with the audience.

The final product, inspired by interactive pieces like Forced Entertainment Theater's Quizoola and Ontroerend Goed's Fight Night, was a series of small scripted moments sandwiched between unscripted games that pitted members of the audience against performers. The outcome of the games impacted the direction of the story, ultimately culminating in two endings that changed nightly depending on how many games the audience won.

mechanics of the game

the woodchips club

As we began to generate ideas, we realized that we needed to give the audience some form of incentive or motivation, so that they would take the games seriously. Lincoln had the idea of giving the audience a role in the story of the show, some sort of collective identity that would put them into conflict with the actors. Eventually, we came up with the idea of "The Woodchips Club," a band of bikers that rode around the Midwest and harassed people by challenging them to games. As they walked into the performance space, we offered audience members wristbands:

podcasts

Leaning into the aesthetic of a road trip, we created a few parodies of podcasts that played during scene transitions. The first podcast, a mashup of This American Life and Serial, establishes context for the audience's role as The Wood Chips Club, and teaches them the "Wood Chips Chant"

"This Midwestern Life"

The next podcast, a parody of the Song Exploder podcast, served as an introduction to the game of "Ninja."

"Game Exploder"

scripted scenes

We tried to fold as much exposition as possible into the world of the play, which often meant that we handed audience members slips of paper and having them read scenes together as an introduction to a game. Here's the dialogue that lead into "Wood Chips," the titular game of the Wood Chips Biker Club:

1/3

After a game, the audience received different pieces of dialogue, depending on who won. Here are two potential lines that followed a game of "Dodgeball."

i-passes and the toll road

The final element of the game was the opportunity for audience members, and performers, to collect "I-Passes," tokens inspired by the real life Illinois toll system. The audience wasn't told what these I-Passes were used for, but towards the end of the play, the ensemble encounters a Toll Road. At this point, anyone who didn't have an I-Pass was asked to give up one shoe and, through the process of a random lottery, one shoe was selected. The person who owned that shoe was then asked to follow our stage manager, who directed them to their new seat, in the hallway, outside of the theater; where they could still watch the show, albeit through a window.

We included the toll to add an element of random excitement towards the end of the piece, as well as an external motivator for the audience during games. Also, since audience members were competing with actors for I-Passes, it was entirely possible that one of the actors could end up in the hallway.

(A few members of the production staff around The Toll chair, which is also where actors ultimately took their bow)